Re: DS2: Vehicle Design Philosphy

I've come up with a few design philosophies of my OWN, but I don't know 
how/where they'd fit into the official timeline..

Here's one I suggest someone apply, perhaps to a colony or lesser power:

I call it the "Universal Chassis" Philosophy. The idea is to base all or

almost all of a force's vehicles on the same chassis. This means the
class, 
engine type, and mobility type would all be the same, with variations on
the 
weapons/equipment on each according to it's mission.

While this might be a little limiting for a major power, it's ideal for
a 
smaller state or colony on a limited budget (the idea is used by the 
Spartans in Pournelle's Prince Of Mercenaries series. There are also
several 
real life examples of vehicles taking on this kind of life - like the 
British Scorpion).  Uniformity of the chassis makes it easy to
accelerate 
production, as well as simplifying logistics and repair. you simply pump
out 
a bunch of chassis, then equip them with the appropriate shell for the 
necessary variant.  These will, depending on the user, tend to be
wheeled or 
tracked vehicles, in the class 2-3 range, though you'll occasionally see
a 
class 1 or 4 vehicle on this theme, perhaps even in a GEV, but I doubt
you'd 
see anyone who can afford Grav technology or class 5-7 vehicles needing
to 
resort to this strategy, except perhaps for second line/reserves units.

Brian B

----Original Message Follows----
From: Greg Wong <gregwong@best.com>
Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: DS2: Vehicle Design Philosphy
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 21:39:35 -0700

Hello.	My apologies if this has already been discussed.

In FB1, there are definite design philosophies for each super-power.
For example, the FSE loves SMLs.  Has someone come up with design
philosophies in regards to vehicle designs for DS2?

Thanks.

--Greg

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